SummaryWhen crisis confronts Katherine and George Gulden (Streep, Hurt), they turn to their grown daughter, Ellen (Zellweger), for support. An ambitious New York journalist, Ellen at first rejects the idea of returning home. But once there, Ellen embarks on a journey of self-discovery that will change her forever. (Universal Studios)
Directed By:Carl Franklin
Written By:Anna Quindlen, Karen Croner
One True Thing
Metascore
Generally Favorable
63
User score
Generally Favorable
7.8
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
63
72% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
24% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
100
Though Mom is ditzy and, at times, irritating, we come to recognize her as the family's most original creative spirit.
78
A formulaic family melodrama whose craftsmanship and sensitivity to its characters raises it to the level of sublime group portrait.
75
It is the craftsmanship that elevates One True Thing above the level of a soaper.
70
In a confused world, this is a movie with answers.
67
In the end, One True Thing suggests, families can be healed even in loss. This may not be a true thing, but at least this emotional drama offers up hope, sweet like one of Kate Gulden's tasty cakes.
50
No matter how tactful and sensitive Franklin's direction, he has made himself complicit in a polarization that panders to anti-intellectual populism even as it caters to women's movement backlash.
38
Even director Carl Franklin, an artful purveyor of sterner stuff in "One False Move" and "Devil in a Blue Dress," can't prevent One True Thing from descending into chick-movie hell.
User score
Generally Favorable
7.8
72% Positive
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
22% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
6% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Jun 20, 2016
10
I recently discovered this on a library DVD. I never heard of it and therefore had no preconcieved ideas about it-how did the critics react, etc. What a shame this one went by my radar because I would have loved to see it on the big screen (and in 1998 it would have been in 35mm). Streep plays the mother and housewife that allows her husband Bill Hurt be a selfish academic who is more concerned with his place in the literary world than of his beloved wife's eminent death from cancer. So much so he insists that his daughter(Zellwiger) simply drop her good job in NYC and come home and take care of her mother-as it turns out-so he can remain in HIS job, feeling the important man of letters and grabbing the occasional young coed for some "private tutoring." I always hear Streep is the actress's actress, one of the best, etc but I really never appreciated why until this movie. She simply embodies this selfless woman who looks the other way while her husband "works late, has a late class". The scene where the poet laureate pays a suprise visit says so much about him-apparently the poet at one time praised his first novel (which meant a lot to Hurt ) only to find that years later the poet didn't even remember the book-quite the slap in the face to the would-be great author that he thought he was. I thought it was going to be another uninspired library dvd night-what a suprise this delightful film was...maybe someday it will be revivied-at a Streep retrospective in NYC or something-I'd love to see it on a big screen with an audience. Probably won' t happen-and that's too bad.
Oct 9, 2016
8
As with "Two Weeks", another story of a mother with terminal cancer and how the family reacts to it. Meryl Streep portrays the mother, Renee Zellweger the daughter, and William Hurt the father; wow, what a cast. The story centers around the daughter and how she deals with changing her life to take care of her mother, how she comes to terms learning about her father, and how she changes becoming more like her mother, something she swore never to do. "Real dialogue" if you've taken care of a family member who was terminal.
